1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for communicating with a portable data medium and comprising for this purpose an electrical contact intended to cooperate with at least one electrical contact of the portable data medium through connecting means, in which said connecting means comprise a sheet extending between the electrical contact of the device and the electrical contact of the portable data medium and having at least one area forming a first conducting element running through a thickness of the sheet and disposed so as to cooperate with each of said contacts, and the device comprises force application means for applying a compressing force to the contacts in order to press said first conducting element against each of said contacts, and for discontinuing the application of said force in order to move said first conducting element away from the contacts.
The portable data medium is constituted, in particular, by a card of the credit card type equipped, in an intrinsically known way, with a microprocessor chip or a logical circuit chip for processing data, and carrying a plurality of electrical contacts intended to cooperate with an equal number of contacts carried by the device, as described, in particular, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,919. The device can be any unit intended to exchange information with the portable data medium within the framework of any procedure, such as a financial operation, a verification of a user's access to a site, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, the connecting means comprise a comb attached to the device and carrying a plurality of juxtaposed flexible metal pins. These pins are connected to the contacts of the device and are intended to cooperate elastically with the contacts of the portable data medium. Other connecting means having metal springs also exist. This type of connecting means has the drawback of being expensive to produce due to the metal cutting operations it involves.
The object of the invention is to offer a device of the type mentioned at the beginning of the specification, wherein the means for connecting to the portable data medium are less expensive to produce.
To this end, according to the invention, said first conducting element comprises an electrically conductive mass made of elastomer.